Asteroid named for Freddie Mercury on 70th birthday

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NEW YORK: Rock legend Freddie Mercury’s legacy is living on as an asteroid, named after him on what would have been the Queen singer’s 70th birthday.

Brian May, who is best known as Queen’s lead guitarist but also has a doctorate in astrophysics, announced that an asteroid — known until now by the less memorable 17473 — was being named in the singer’s honor.

The asteroid is far from the British singer’s namesake planet and is instead in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

May showed a video of the asteroid’s movement on his website, accompanied by Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”

The Minor Planet Center, part of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory based at Harvard University, issued a citation timed for Mercury’s birthday on September 4.

“His distinctive sound and large vocal range were hallmarks of his performance style, and he is regarded as one of the greatest rock singers of all time,” it said.

The asteroid was discovered in 1991, the year that Mercury died of complications from AIDS.

Mercury, born as Farrokh Bulsara in what is now Tanzania, remains one of rock’s most influential singers through his flamboyant stage persona and Queen songs such as “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Are the Champions.”

Profile:

Freddie Mercury was born on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, sent him off to a private school in India, from 1955 til 1963. In 1964 Freddie and his family flew to England. Freddie was very delighted to come to England. In 1966 he started his education at the Ealing College of Art, where he graduated in 1969. He loved art, and because of that, he often went along with his friend Tim Staffell, who played in a band called Smile. Also in this band where Brian May andRoger Taylor. When Staffell left the band in 1970, Freddie became their new singer. He changed the band’s name into Queen, and they took on a new bass-player in February 1971, called John Deacon. Their first album, “Queen”, came out in 1973. But their real breakthrough was “Killer Queen”, on the album “Sheer Heart Attack”, which was released in 1974. They became immortal with the single “Bohemian Rhapsody”, on the 1975 album “A Night At The Opera”. After setting foot in the US in 1980, with “Another One Bites The Dust”, they had a bad period. Their album “Flash Gordon” went down the drain, because the movie Flash Gordon (1980) flunked. Their next, “Hot Space”, also wasn’t a great success. Only the song “Under Pressure”, which they sang together withDavid Bowie, made a difference. In 1983, they took a year off. But, in 1984 they were totally back with their new album, called “The Works”. It contained great hits, such as “Radio Ga Ga” and “I Want To Break Free”. In 1985 Freddie made his first big solo-album, “Mr. Bad Guy”. He and the band had been in a bit of an argument, and he wanted to do something on his own. The album was loved by the fans, but didn’t do to well. But the band got back together again, after their famous performance at Live Aid, in 1985. At the end of the year, they started working on their new album, “A Kind Of Magic”. They also held their most famous tour ever, the “Magic Tour”. They did Wembley Stadium twice, and held their very last concert in Knebworth, in front of 125.000 people. After 1986, it went silent around Queen. It was in 1987 or ’88, when Freddie told the band he had AIDS, and only had a few years to live. After Freddie told the band, he refused to talk about it anymore. He was afraid that people would buy their records out of pity. He said he wanted to keep making music as long as possible. And he did. His second big solo-album, “The Great Pretender”, got out in 1987. After that, he flew to Spain, where he made the magnificent album “Barcelone”, together with Montserrat Caballé, whom he saw performing in 1983. Because Freddie loved opera, he became a huge fan of her. For him, this album was like a dream becoming reality. The single “Barcelona” went huge, and was also used as a theme song for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. After Barcelona, he started working with the band again. They made “The Miracle”, which was released in 1989. It was a success, with hits as “Breakthru”, “I Want It All” and “The Invisible Man”. After “The Miracle”, Freddie’s health got worse. They wanted to do one more album, called “Innuendo.” They worked on it in 1990 and early 1991. Every time when Freddie would feel well, he came over to the studio and sang. After “Innuendo” was released in January 1991, they made two video clips. The first one was the video clip of “I’m Going Slightly Mad”, shot in March 1991. Because Freddie was very thin, and had little wounds all over his body, they used a lot of make-up. He wore a wig, and the clip was shot in black and white. Freddie’s final video clip was released in June 1991. The clip, “These Are The Days Of Our Lives”, later turned out to be his goodbye song, the last time he appeared on film. You could clearly see he was ill, but he still hadn’t told the world about his disease. Rumours went around that he some kind of terrible disease. This rumor was confirmed by Freddie himself, one day before he passed on. His death was seen as a great loss for the world of music.

About the Author

Syed Ammar Alavi - is Lahore (Pakistan) based journalist & writer with 25-year experience in print, wire and broadcast forms of journalism. His major fields of interest are politics, film,tv,sports, climate change and technology